.

Worth the Wait?

At last! The long-awaited, much belated
Recreated digital creations
Of ten thousands JFK-related
CIA et alia citations.

Allegations of assassinations,
Congos, Argentinas, (Panamas?)
Delete Allende and Lumumba, intimations;
Fraudulent elections, coup d’etats.

Forgotten, hidden names revealed at last;
Subversions now spread out for all to see.
Our shameful shameless not-so-distant past.
Ignoble not-so-noble history.

No doubt that’s how the game’s still played today.
Or maybe not. With lies it’s hard to say.

.

.

James A. Tweedie is a retired pastor living in Long Beach, Washington. He has written and published six novels, one collection of short stories, and four collections of poetry including Sidekicks, Mostly Sonnets, and Laughing Matters, all with Dunecrest Press. His poems have been published nationally and internationally in both print and online media. He was honored with being chosen as the winner of the 2021 SCP International Poetry Competition.

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8 Responses

  1. Roy Eugene Peterson

    James, as far as we know, the blame game has still left us with a final answer to the question, “Who killed JFK.” Excellent point about lies. They are undoubtedly still prevalent. FYI: I detect something else missing from the files: the second “t” in coup d’états.

    Reply
  2. Margaret Coats

    The history remains mystery, but now there is so much more to pore over. And we will have to wait again as theorists and partisans render their opinions. Even you, James, are still uncertain at the end! I too noticed the apparent misspelling Roy caught in line 8, but I see that it could be a Franco-Italian pun. “Eta” in Italian is an age, epoch, or era, and the Kennedy assassination of was the end of Camelot and the beginning of concealment that has now ended. A new era of questioning, to be sure, with answers from digitized documents needing interpretation, as living participants have all passed on. But already I will ask, as Roy did, about the Tweedie files. Line 4 seems too short and line 7 too long. Is this deliberate?

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      I think line 4 is meant to be read as:

      CIA (et alia) citations.

      IF CIA is pronounced SEE-eye-AY, and if the Latin is spelled out, then you get an acceptable meter:

      SEE eye AY (et A li A) cit TAT shuns.

      Line 7 doesn’t work, and I don’t know how to suggest any fixes.

      Reply
      • Julian D. Woodruff

        If you follow the Italian habit of ellision almost wherever possible, Joseph (Delete Allend’and Lumumb’intimations), you get the right number of syllables, but you’re stuck with an accented 1st syllable for Lumumba–which is probably why you threw up your hands.

      • James A. Tweedie

        I don’t know what to do with line 7, either.

      • James A. Tweedie

        I think the word “delete” in line 7 wasn’t supposed to be there.

  3. Julian D. Woodruff

    No, James, I think this is a mess that will never be straightened out. But in time, some of the one zillion theories out there may gain some support or be utterly refuted. I think that process is valuable, but I do wonder if time might be more constructively spent in other pursuits.

    Reply
  4. Warren Bonham

    Thank you for the fun read. The couplet at the end nailed it. As a result of that, I have trouble believing that we got the full story. I want to know the truth of what happened back in 1963 but there are some more recent events I’m more interested in. It’s really hard to trust people who lie for a living.

    Reply

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